This award-winning quilted wall hanging was at Piece and Plenty Quilt Guild's 2017 show in Rolla.

Cattails and Mums Quilted Wall Hanging

Every once in awhile I run across a piece of quilt art that has me wondering how they did it and this quilted wall hanging is one of them. And it's not because of the name, although anything with cat in the title is bound to catch my attention, and cat tails is no exception since it reminds me of our cats throw with all of the cat tails. Cattails and Chrysanthemums Quilted Wall Hanging won first prize at Piece and Plenty Quilt Guild's 2017 Quilt Show in Rolla in 2017 and I can understand why.

If you look closely at the design, you will see the centerpiece is a different patchwork design than the rest of the pattern.

Cattails and chrysanthemums are made out of individual hexagon patchwork pieces.

I can understand why this is done by hand, it would take careful handiwork to be able to hand applique and hand piece the fabric onto the background to achieve this overall design.

Look at the detail work in the orange vase that holds the cattails and chrysanthemums.

Lovely recommendation for a technique and teacher of English paper piecing.

The other lovely aspect of this quilted wall hanging is how the machine quilting adds to the overall texture of the piece.

Another reason why I sometimes I recommend to people who ask, don't start quilting by making a quilt, start with something smaller like a quilted wall hanging. You will finish them faster and be more encouraged to them tackle something larger, such as a bed-sized quilt. Besides, I think these kinds of quilt hangings make lovely wall art, don't you?

Colder weather is starting to move in so I picked a fall bouquet featuring my blooming zinnias.

Fall Flowers Bouquet

We've had a fall drought this year, more than a month without rain and record hot temperatures so flowers have been few and far between.

I planted my zinnia seeds late this year so when the first flowers started to unfurl, I decided it was time to pick my first fall flowers bouquet. This time of year, it's hard to say how many more bouquets I will get before frost nips what is still blooming.

Of all of the seasons, fall is the one when my bouquets are a mixed collection of flowers. Blooming mums aside, I may only have a couple of one flower still blooming so the fall bouquets end up being an interesting mix.

Zinnias make wonderful cut flowers, they can be cut still unfolding and will last a long time.

This fall bouquet has fall asters, red salvia, a couple of garlic chives still blooming - those are the little white flowers - butterfly weed and the Mexican sage, the long purple flowers. In the center, several zinnias, some picked still in bud form.

These should last a good couple of weeks if cats don't decide to munch on the green leaves.

Going out into the garden and picking a bouquet of flowers is one of my guilty pleasures. I do it when I am finished cleaning house; when I need a hint of beauty in a difficult day, when I just need a break.

I am hoping there is at least one more bouquet to be picked before cold weather settles in. Although I am looking forward to slowing down, I will miss having the fresh flowers to enjoy.